Outdoor burners controversy getting hotter

The Linn County Board of Health will discuss outdoor wood-fired boilers on Thursday. The meeting starts at 5:30 p.m. at Linn County Public Health, 501 13th St. NW. The agenda predicts they'll get to the boilers by about 6:15 p.m.

Public Health wants to ban all but EPA-certified wood-fired boilers in the rural parts of the county. The Board of Supervisors makes the final decision. It'll likely come before them in April.

The supervisors have been hearing from people who own the units, and people who hate the units, a lot lately.

The Central City Council has been looking at an ordinance that would completely ban the outdoor wood burners in city limits. They last discussed it March 11, and decided they'd grandfather in existing units, but didn't finalize an ordinance.

"At this point, we may just wait and see what the county does," said LaNeil McFadden, the city clerk.

Steve Dummermuth, of rural Linn County, said in an e-mail:

Recently I was informed that I would no longer be able to burn leaves because I live within a mile of the City boundary. The reason had to do with people's respiratory and heart problems. I still feel that I was poorly represented – I didn't know anything about it until the card showed up in the mail. Now it seems that Linn County Public Health is going on steroids. Who is this board anyway? There's no kind way to say it, but frankly I am tired of protecting the weak and the sick to the point where it significantly hinders the majority. I'm sure the next step will be the banning of all farming. Think of the particulates stirred up when tractors hit the fields.